Where do we come from? Where are we going? And whose fault is it when we have problems? These questions confront us all at one point or another. Parents caring for a sick child might ask, "What did I do or not do to cause this?" A child struggling with performing a simple task that his friends might easily do could be asking, "Will I ever be like the other kids?" Tough questions like these naturally pull on the heartstrings. But finding answers may involve more than focusing on the problems in front of us. Jesus disciples once asked him about a case of physical disability - whose fault was it? Did the man do something wrong? Did his parents, that he was “born this way? Their prayers hadn’t been able to heal the man. We don’t know but maybe frustration and fear for the man’s future had set in. Jesus replied that neither were at fault. He turned them away from even considering fault and cause for the disability – away from the disability itself. He declared that the works of God, that is of divine Good, was all that was manifest in him. He shifted the focus from material disability to God’s divine ability to bring out perfection and goodness alone. Now the difference between the disciples approach and Jesus’ was as different as night and day. But Jesus’ viewpoint led to healing, while the disciples approach would have left the man mired in the problem.

The Christ perspective – the divine message of man’s spiritual origin and native goodness – heals. It doesn't teach to cope with or explain away problems. It completely heals them.

I think that is what set Christ Jesus apart from the doctors and helpers of the sick before him. Through his method of turning to God, identifying God’s law of Good in each case, and overruling whatever the current material belief about disease was claiming, he never doubted his cases would be healed. He appealed to God’s law the way a mathematician appeals to math facts. He worked with solutions, not on problems.

If you would like to learn more about Christ Jesus' methodology, check out these links:

It is natural to want to help others through your prayers. Practicing prayer for others needn’t and shouldn’t be scary. Healing prayer is very fulfilling. It is motivated by love for God and man. While not every practitioner decides to advertise as a healer, taking out a listing in The Christian Science Journal can be a next step as the commitment to practice Christian Science healing matures into full-time availability to help others. But whether one is Journal-listed or not, the conditions and standards of practice are the same. Each one needs to do what is necessary to give effective help. To an early practitioner, Christian Science discoverer Mary Baker Eddy wrote, “Every day treat yourself that no evil suggestion nor argument can swerve you or frighten you--or deter you from healing and doing just what is needed here . . . Three times each day treat yourself for this temptation then watch that your house be not broken open.” [MBE to Alfred E. Baker, 2/2/1899, F00147] I remember a time when I felt totally blocked as a healer. Really stuck. I couldn’t see any progress in my cases and felt afraid. Maybe I shouldn’t be practicing, I thought. Then I confronted head-on that aggressive and false suggestion that I couldn’t heal. Three times a day I treated myself, my practice and my community to understand that God through Christ was the healer, and that as God’s reflection, I express His eternal, healing Christ.

Mrs. Eddy defined Christ as “the divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error.” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, 583) She also spoke of this Christ as “voicing good, the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness.” (ibid 332) She explained that this Christ is “the divine image and likeness, dispelling the illusions of the senses; the Way, the Truth, and the Life, healing the sick and casting out evils, destroying sin, disease, and death.” (ibid 332)

I affirmed regularly that this very Christ is always a present and effective healer; that where I am, the healing Christ is manifest. As I did, I began to feel the authority that Christ gives each one to heal through prayer. I began to think of myself less as a personal healer and more as a perpetual witness to and expression of this healing Christ through every treatment I gave. I stopped being afraid that I couldn't heal. And then things started moving, really moving fast.

Sometimes healing came so quickly that I asked myself if I had had the time to give the case a full Christian Science treatment. But my three-times-a-day prayer always showed me that its not a personal me doing something extraordinary in prayer. My role is to witness the Christ expressed in me and in the patient - to witness to the Christ-message of God’s perpetual care for His creation - the divine message of unending good that restores harmony where discord seems to be.

I am trying to keep up a regular practice of treating myself three times a day “that no evil suggestion nor argument can swerve [me] or frighten [me]--or deter [me] from healing and doing just what is needed here.” It isn't always easy and sometimes I have to set an alarm to remember to do it. But I am striving to be regular about it, because, bottom line: Good healers are needed. And those of us whose love for God and man move us to want to lift up our brothers and sisters in healing prayer, have every right to be effective in our holy work.

Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven, and say... "You came near when I called you, and you said, 'Do not fear.' You, Lord, took up my case..." LAMENTATIONS 3:41,57,58 NIV

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Christian Science treatment is systematic and original prayer. When I say original I mean prayer treatment doesn’t involve auto-pilot repeating of phrases or memorized lines. While every treatment includes certain basic elements, it doesn’t follow a formula of thinking certain thoughts for certain symptoms. The person praying doesn’t have to have any particular expertise in certain problems. The healing Christ is the expert in every case. In giving Christian Science treatment, the practitioner engages with the Christ, with God’s self-revealing power that is ever-present to heal. Jesus expressed this Christ-power to such a degree that his name is forever linked with it. It was the Christ that healed Jesus cases, and it is the same Christ, or God-power, that heals through prayer today. Here are the elements of Christian Science treatment:

An acknowledgement and understanding of the authority of God who is Spirit, divine Love, over the case and of the healer’s reflected ability to treat and heal. This authority begins immediately to eliminate fear in both the practitioner and the patient.

An acknowledgement and understanding of the allness of God, His total goodness, power, presence, etc. Treatment involves a deep and far-reaching look at God - what God is and is doing through Christ. Christ is the divine and everpresent manifestation of God, divine Good, blessing His creation.

An acknowledgement and understanding of the true nature of man, including the patient, as the image and likeness of God and the expression of His Christ. Treatment involves seeing the 100 percent spirituality of the creation of Spirit, in both general and specific ways relating to the case.

Such an awareness of what is true spiritually, of the reality of the present wholeness and goodness of God’s creation that whatever the problem appears to be begins to lose substance and reality to the healer. This doesn’t involve simply visualizing a problem disappearing, but understanding why and how the problem lacks reality, substance and permanence.

An acknowledgement and understanding of the total unity and inseparability of God and man, therefore the inseparability of the divine Mind and its perfect idea, of cause and effect, of the sun and its rays, of a person and his health, etc.

An awareness and experience of joy, gratitude, power, dominion, that results in healing that is quick and permanent.

I could elaborate more, but that would involve in-depth teaching beyond the scope of a simple blog. So this is more of a quick overview of the basic elements of Christian Science treatment.

It may seem like all that could or would take some time – and it often does. But sometimes the points are covered very quickly, almost simultaneously, depending on the case. Some of Christ Jesus’ healings occurred over a period of time and others immediately. His teachings indicate that he was nearly always engaged in thinking profoundly on, teaching, or demonstrating, one or more of these points of treatment. When it comes to healing prayer, Mary Baker Eddy, discoverer of the Science of Christ-healing that Jesus practiced, debunked blind belief as an aid to healing. She explains, “It is neither Science nor Truth which acts through blind belief.”(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,12) Rather the Christian Science healer seeks in his prayers “the human understanding of the divine healing Principle as manifested in Jesus, whose humble prayers were deep and conscientious protests of Truth, - of man’s likeness to God and of man’s unity with Truth and Love.”(ibid) Jesus’ theology of the perfection and spirituality of man as the likeness to perfect Spirit who is God, and of man as inseparable from Truth and Love, heals. Health is the outward evidence of an inner truth. Prayer in Christian Science doesn’t change reality. It involves a thorough examination of the divine Truth that is God, of God’s omnipresence and of man's pure likeness to his Maker, revealing the sole reality and permanence of health in God’s creation. This is a preview of a part of a new lecture under development. Stay tuned for news about when/where it will be available.

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If you have ever found yourself caught in a battle against illness and have struggled to find peace and healing without making much headway, this audio blog post is for you. Christ Jesus was a master at turning water to wine. The wine they drank was not like the intoxicating drink of today. It was mixed with water, to make bitter, undrinkable water sweet and pure. This redirection from bitter to sweet, unhealthy to healthy, was a theme in all of Jesus works.

Here you will find a 4-minute audio clip that discusses the healing of a woman whom Luke described as "bowed for 18 years." Listen to insights into how Christ - the spirit of Truth that Jesus expressed - transforms minds and bodies from a bitter battle with disease to the sweet worship and praise of the infinite and ever-present Good that heals.

Now He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up. But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.” And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. (Luke 13:10-13)

"We bow down to matter, and entertain finite thoughts of God like the pagan idolater. Mortals are inclined to fear and to obey what they consider a material body more than they do a spiritual God." (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, 214)

Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power. Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness. Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp. Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals. Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. (Psalm 150)

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"O gentle presence." How many times I've thought of those words. They open a poem written by Mary Baker Eddy, Mother's Evening Prayer, which begins: O gentle presence, peace and joy and power; O Life divine, that owns each waiting hour, Thou Love that guards the nestling's faltering flight! Keep Thou my child on upward wing tonight. (Poems, 4) “O gentle presence” are words that affirm that God is with us. Now. Forever. I experienced this presence in a powerful way last year. It was the evening before a Memorial service for my husband who had passed on the week before. There were last minute decisions to be made. Some of our extended family had decided views that conflicted with mine. Sitting alone in the family room, I was mulling over the issues thinking I didn't need this problem. I heard my daughter in the next room gathering pictures from photo albums, making plans to frame them. This was one item of minor contention – whether, and which, photos should be displayed. After a short period of ruminating, a tender quietness suddenly settled over me and enveloped the room. I felt a palpable presence that could only be divine. I knew it was God's gentle presence making me calm. Peace reigned in my heart. I felt it. I sat very still in wonder.

Suddenly, all the preparations and decisions were irrelevant to me. All I wanted was to hold onto this divine presence. All that mattered was this feeling of God with me. I encouraged my daughter to go ahead with her plans, assuring her that everything would be fine.

This peace stayed with me throughout the service the next day. And, of course, the display of family pictures was perfect, pleasing and comforting to everyone.

The peace, joy and power of God’s presence is the Christ, God's action of revealing Himself in unmistakeable ways we can understand, giving us just what we need, bringing healing. This divine presence doesn’t come and go. The Christ is always here with us all, all the time bringing peace and joy and power.

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Here is my first attempt at video blogging. Please bear with me. There is clearly a learning curve. Shaky camera work, scary closeups, blurry bits and unsynchronized lips/words aside - it was fun. And hey, you can always listen with your eyes closed! Find a link to a print version of this experience as it appeared in the March 1999 Christian Science Journal.

"We cannot in reality suffer from breaking anything except a moral or spiritual law. . . . The harmony and immortality of man will never be reached without the understanding that Mind is not in matter. Let us banish sickness as an outlaw, and abide by the rule of perpetual harmony,—God's law. It is man's moral right to annul an unjust sentence, a sentence never inflicted by divine authority." ( Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 381).

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QUESTION: “How does one heal someone who has lost their sense of orientation, who is 80 percent deaf, who doesn’t know who he is, or with whom he is, anymore? I believe in spiritual healing. I want to see such healing for this man.” (Question originally asked in French.)RESPONSE:Prayer is especially helpful in such cases because it bypasses broken down lines of human communication and lifts the case directly to God. Prayer involves engaging spiritual sense, which is the innate capacity we all have to discern spiritual reality. Through spiritual sense we can discern the true and present nature of God and man and prove that no one is out of reach of God’s care. When the material senses break down, a case can seem unreachable. But this evidence of deterioration only points to a mortal belief about man as cut off from good. This is never the actual case. No one is without hope or help. Your prayers that seek out God’s perspective of His creation can lead you to the truth about the material senses – that they neither limit nor define a man’s capabilities. When we stop fretting over what seems to limit the person and discover real life to be limitless and free in God, the door opens wide to healing.

The identity and liberty of each one of God’s children are intact and safe. Never separated from the divine Life that is God, real life is completely free from limiting, material conditions. We don't have to wait for some hereafter moment to experience the freedom of spiritual being. This present state of existence is completely discoverable through prayer.

A marginal heading, “Identity not lost” appears twice in Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures:

“What is man? Brain, heart, blood, bones, etc., the material structure? If the real man is in the material body, you take away a portion of the man when you amputate a limb; the surgeon destroys manhood, and worms annihilate it. But the loss of a limb or injury to a tissue is sometimes the quickener of manliness; and the unfortunate cripple may present more nobility than the statuesque athlete, — teaching us by his very deprivations, that ‘a man’s a man, for a’ that.’” (172)

“The material body and mind are temporal, but the real man is spiritual and eternal. The identity of the real man is not lost, but found through this explanation; for the conscious infinitude of existence and of all identity is thereby discerned and remains unchanged. It is impossible that man should lose aught that is real, when God is all and eternally his. The notion that mind is in matter, and that the so-called pleasures and pains, the birth, sin, sickness, and death of matter, are real, is a mortal belief; and this belief is all that will ever be lost.” (302)

If you are worried that your prayers “here” may not reach one in need “there,” don’t be. It has been scientifically proven that the discernment of the true nature of man in one human consciousness can set others free from their false beliefs about themselves. Christ Jesus discerned the perfect man that divine Truth, God, creates and maintains. He did this in cases where, to material sense, the patient seemed completely out of reach. (See the healing of Jairus’ daughter, Gospel of Luke 8:41-56; and the raising of Lazarus from the dead, Gospel of John, chapter 11) Jesus proved that no one cut off from the Love that is God. He discerned the kingdom of God within us – the spiritual capacity to know and express the Life that is God.

Mary Baker Eddy explained, “When speaking of God’s children, not the children of men, Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is within you;” that is, Truth and Love reign in the real man, showing that man in God’s image is unfallen and eternal. Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God’s own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy. Man is not a material habitation for Soul; he is himself spiritual. Soul, being Spirit, is seen in nothing imperfect nor material.” (476)

Jesus didn’t illustrate an exception to the rule. He showed that the power to heal belongs to each of us and can be demonstrated when we understand who we are as children of God. The divine perspective that heals the sick and raises oneself and others out of the oblivion of material sense is available to everyone who is willing to seek it out.

Your prayers are important. Let your search for healing begin with deepening, expanding, your understanding of the true nature of God. The Bible and Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health are indispensable tools to aid you in your prayers. Let them open your eyes to what God is, and to what he is doing right now for His creation.

I frequently receive questions from readers of this blog concerning the practice of healing prayer. Many questions are personal in nature, but occasionally I receive a question generic enough to be addressed for a wider audience. If you have helpful thoughts to share with this questioner, please feel free to leave them in your comment below.

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What makes the healing prayer taught in Christian Science distinct from other types of prayer for healing? Mary Baker Eddy devotes an entire book - Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures - to this question. Specifically, page 12 clears up some of the fog and mystery surrounding Christian Science prayer. Interestingly, the discussion begins with a statement of what it is not. The healing prayer practiced in Christian Science is not a human “mind over matter” blind faith-cure method. Mrs. Eddy writes, “‘The prayer of faith shall save the sick,’ says the Scripture. What is this healing prayer? A mere request that God will heal the sick has no power to gain more of the divine presence than is already at hand.” If we use prayer something like a balloon or emergency flare we send up, - “Hey, I could really use some help over here on my problem,” - where is God in this prayer? Circling around somewhere outside the problem, needing our help through prayer to find it and fix it? Holding sickness at the center of a case and bringing God to it indicates a misunderstanding of the Everpresent One. Spiritual healing involves correcting misperceptions of the who and what and where of God. God is the infinite All – the one reality, power, presence. If we are holding onto a problem, or a disease, to be one fixed reality, which we hope another reality, our God, will come to heal – this is a human “mind over matter" blind faith-cure attempt.

Sometimes faith-cures have positive physical results and sometimes very negative. It all depends on the strength of the human will of the healer acting through his blind belief. But whether the results are good are not, there is no guarantee they will be permanent. And if one’s spiritual understanding of the one reality as God, or Good, isn’t growing, the case can be left in a worse state than before, vulnerable to any new belief – regardless of the appearance of a physical improvement.

As Mrs. Eddy says, "The common custom of praying for the recovery of the sick finds help in blind belief, whereas help should come from enlightened understanding. Changes in belief may go on indefinitely, but they are the merchandise of human thought and not the outgrowth of divine Science."

When it comes to the healing prayer taught in Christian Science, Mrs. Eddy makes an important distinction between a blind belief - holding limited human thoughts about God - and the total yielding to divine Principle, to the Science of God and man, in the human understanding. Mrs. Eddy puts blind belief completely outside of the practice of Christian Science when she explains, “It is neither Science nor Truth which acts through blind belief, nor is it the human understanding of the divine healing Principle as manifested in Jesus, whose humble prayers were deep and conscientious protests of Truth, - of man’s likeness to God and of man’s unity with Truth and Love.”

Jesus’ theology of the perfection and spirituality of man as the likeness to perfect Spirit who is God, and of man as inseparable from Truth and Love, heals. When one protests for, affirms with well-reasoned understanding, the truth of God and man, healing is the natural outcome. Health is the outward evidence of an inner truth. Prayer doesn’t change reality, or exchange one form of reality for another. It is the confirmation of Truth’s, God’s presence and the permanence of health in God’s creation. Healing prayer affirms what is real and true, and physical, mental, emotional and spiritual healing confirms the truth.

Jesus said, “To this end was I born… that I should bear witness unto the Truth.” (John 18:37)The same goes for each one of us. Healing is normal to the Christ. It is not a special talent or unique dispensation given to some and denied to others. Christian healing – Christian Science healing - is the natural confirmation of God’s presence and power – His Christ - here and now reflected in us.

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Christian Science has this beautiful, clear, pure, spiritual simplicity to it. The entire theology can be boiled down to a few basic points: 1) God exists. 2) God is good. 3) God is all. 4) The universe, including man, is the reflection of God. 5) There is no evil.Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer of Christian Science, explained that her work consisted of 2 parts: 1) Discovery of this Science – of these five basic points 2) Proof by present demonstration that this is the Principle by which Jesus healed. We can’t have the discovery without the proof. Mrs. Eddy discovered the action of the divine Mind on human minds and bodies. But limited mortal thought patterns have worn a groove in collective human consciousness, probing, diagnosing and picking apart matter as both cause and effect. Hence we are drawn into thinking that problems are material and thus complicated or difficult to heal. For Christ Jesus, theology and medicine were one. Jesus’ theology is simple and clear. God is all, Good. Evil is nothing, unreal. What we face in every case is a challenge to the simple theology of the Christ. Can we depend on the fact that God is good? Can we prove it? Is man really reflection – the image and likeness of God? Can we demonstrate it?

Every case touches on a theological question. The task of a Christian healer is to simply answer the question and watch the proof appear.

The work should always be this simple. But it isn’t without opposition. That which Mrs Eddy named mortal mind – limited, matter-based reasoning that generates doubt and fear - would make the task of healing seem complicated, unclear and difficult. Fear and doubt impel us to overwork, or underwork the healing activity of prayer, to doubt our experience with the Christ, to change methods repeatedly and ultimately let the problem run the case.

I received a phone call from a father whose child had jumped from a tree house and injured his calf. It appeared to be broken. I was asked to pray for him while the family sorted out the practical care. When I hung up the phone I immediately thought, Well, God, what do you have to say about this?

Looking up from the book, I thought, Don’t be fooled by the picture of flesh and bones. That is not who this child really is. His substance is Spirit. All that he is and has comes from the Spirit that is God.

It seemed such a simple response to the theological question, Is this boy the image and likeness of God?

As I considered the implications in prayer – that he was in fact spiritual and that anything pro or con going on with flesh and bones didn’t touch him – a doubt cropped up. I wanted to be sure I was getting the message correctly. I wondered, But wasn’t Jesus just talking about himself? Then I turned the page and read, “The divine Spirit, which identified Jesus thus centuries ago, has spoken through the inspired Word and will speak through it in every age and clime. It is revealed to the receptive heart, and is again seen casting out evil and healing the sick.” (46)

OK, I thought, so Spirit knows this child the same way it knew Jesus - as perfect, spiritual, whole, unbroken, invulnerable, unfallen. The same Spirit voicing truth through Jesus' words to his disciples was communicating to me in the inspired Word of Science and Health in this age. My receptive heart was accepting the message.

Then up popped a fear. Can it be this easy? What about the broken bone? Don’t I have to do something about this in my prayer?

I looked down once again at the book and read the next phrase as though it was being spoken with force, “The Master said plainly that physique was not Spirit…”

I remembered Jesus’ instruction in the Sermon on the Mount and thought of it in relation to prayer, “Let your statement be, 'Yes, yes ' or 'No, no'; anything beyond these is of evil." Matthew 5:37

I needed to say Yes, Yes to the plain and simple reality of unbroken, uninterrupted spiritual being. And I needed to say a direct and clear No, No to the physical belief that the child was material and breakable.

That was it. I consented and said YES, YES. In fact, I was so taken by what I was saying YES to, that I forgot the case entirely and continued reading.

The phone rang about 30 minutes later. It was the mother. She told me that two minutes after they placed the call, she was holding her son and praying to know what to do next. They had discussed calling an ambulance or driving him to the hospital. Then they heard a distinct sound coming from his leg “like the sound of a zipper.” And he was healed just like that.

The pure simple theology of the Christ is revealed. And it heals.

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I don't think my home was ever as beautiful. Peace had descended. All was calm. Everyone in the house was tucked in bed. With fragrant candles burning and a warm fire crackling, I cuddled up in an armchair in front of our Christmas tree and drank in the scene.

I was grateful for the peace and calm, but I wasn't feeling comfortable or settled. Far from it. I had been asked to pray for a sick child who had been diagnosed with a serious spinal infection. I had been searching all evening, but I hadn't yet felt that sweet assurance that comes when one knows that all is well.

I have practiced Christian Science professionally insome form since 1979.But my journey withChristian Science startedin a Sunday schoolwhere as a young childI was taught the Scriptures and some simple basicsof Jesus' method ofscientific Christian healing.A significant experienceat the age of twelveopened my eyes tothe great potentialof this practice. After impaling my footon a nail,I prayed the way I had learnedin Sunday school.Within momentsthe pain stoppedand healing began.By the next morning the wound had disappeared completely.Having experiencedthe great potential​of Christian Science,there would be noturning back.